


Catch and Release

by hollyhock13



Series: Whumptober 2019 [12]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Close Calls and Near Misses, Dick and Tim should both have major falling traumas, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, In which Dick defends Damian to Tim’s face about his murderous actions yet again, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tim Drake has no survival instinct, Whumptober 2019, back at it again with the, prompt: adrenaline, that should be a tag guys why do I have to do all the work here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 06:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21031727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollyhock13/pseuds/hollyhock13
Summary: Who catches those meant to fly?





	Catch and Release

**Author's Note:**

> Another scene shamelessly lifted from canon, but more loosely. Remember that time when Damian nearly killed Tim by cutting his line and then got off scott free and Dick wasn’t traumatized by nearly watching his brother fall to his death from a cut line? Yeah me neither because screw that.
> 
> Thanks as always to[@Ursapharoh15](%E2%80%9C) for some quick proofreading and story help.
> 
> Enjoy!

Dick sees it before he hears it.

Tim shoots his grapple line and checks the hold with a tug, but something is off. The way the line bounces is wrong somehow, but before Dick can say anything, Tim jumps. Dicks breath catches. The line holds for a moment and Dick starts to breathe. But then—

_Snap_! 

The sound sends a shiver down Dick’s spine and ice into his heart. He dives for his little brother the instant he can, shooting off his own grapple at the same time. 

Falling. 

Falling. 

He reaches for a cape, it brushes his fingers.

Falling. 

Falling.

He strains, it’s now or never. The fabric is slick between his fingers, too slick. But it’s the best he’s got.

The line catches and he groans at the sudden weight on the tips of his fingers. The shouting over the comms is finally filtering in. 

_“Nightwing!”_

_“Is Red Robin alright?”_

_“What happened?!”_

Dick grunts and starts the process of lowering them to the ground on his one straining arm. 

The chatter on the comms continues, but Dick tunes it out. Tim isn’t responding either, which only drives the chaos higher. By the time they are both firmly on the ground, both are ready to ditch their receivers. 

“What was that?” Dick demands, breathless. 

“My line snapped,” says Tim, dazed. 

“Obviously! Didn’t you follow protocol? You’re supposed to check your line before and after every patrol!” Dick’s heart is still hammering in his chest. 

Tim sounds very faint when he speaks again. “I did.”

“That’s impossible! A line of this quality doesn’t break without visible signs of disrepair before use!” Dick is yelling. He tries to reign in his anger, but it isn’t working very well. “You must have missed something!”

“I didn’t!” Tim screams. “I would never do that to you!”

Dick stops, blinks. Tries to start again, but stops with another blink. Once more, “You wouldn’t do that to  _me_ ?”

“I was there, Nightwing. I know what it did to you. I would never do that to you again.”

Tim frowns while Dick tries to process that. He’d known, intellectually, that Tim was there the night his parents fell, but this...

“I examined it last night, and again before patrol. No one else has had access to it except... _Damian_.  I’m going to KILL that little—!”

That snaps Dick out of it. “I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it—“

Tim freezes, turning to Dick with the most betrayed expression he’s ever seen there. “He didn’t mean anything by it? He tried to  _kill_ me, in the most traumatizing way possible for  _you_,  and he didn’t  _mean anything by it_? ” His little brother takes a step backward with a disbelieving shake of his head. “I think we’re done here, Dick. I’m going home.”

Dick starts to protest again, that that isn’t what he meant at  _all,_ but Tim is already gone. 


End file.
